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Massachusetts Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) has launched a new "Why Life Insurance?" consumer awareness program on Facebook designed to get families thinking and talking about their financial futures.

Social Security retirement benefits for about 55 million people will go up by 3.6% next year, the first cost-of-living increase since 2009, the U.S. Social Security Administration said last week.

The longer you work, the better, retirement experts will tell you. Plow on until you're 70 and you'll make more, have fewer years of retirement to fund, and collect a fatter Social Security check. But that's not always desirable, or possible.

As I discuss market trends with my peers around the country, PEO’s are a consistent topic of discussion. It’s one of those issues where everyone seems to have an opinion about their potential relevance and impact on the benefits adviser community. I realize that it depends on your locale and whether any PEO’s are willing to partner and distribute their services through an adviser network. Clearly some organizations are exclusionary and represent direct competition to…

In Tomlinson v. El Paso Corporation, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently held that El Paso Corporation’s transition to a cash balance pension plan did not violate federal anti-age discrimination and pension laws. In doing so, the court offered important guidance to employers that provide pension benefits to their employees. …

According to a poll of 642 18- to 29-year-olds conducted by the Strategic Research Institute at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., 50% don’t believe Social Security will exist by the time they become age-eligible for the program at 67.

Here's a recent roundup of industry accomplishments. Check to see if a colleague is mentioned this week.

American workers are becoming more and more pessimistic about their retirement prospects, according to a new survey by Sun Life Financial, but those who have invested in annuities or hold long-term care insurance are decidedly more confident.

Aon Hewitt’s September 401(k) Index observations were released yesterday, showing that despite steep losses in the stock market in September, participant transfers were very modest. On average, 0.03% of balances transferred on any given day. This is in line with the trailing 12-month average daily net transfer activity levels.

American workers' trust in their future retirement has reached a four-year low, according to a release of the Unretirement Index, a poll of nearly 1,500 working Americans by Sun Life Financial Inc. After remaining stable for three years, retirement confidence dropped nearly 20% this September compared to a year earlier, according to the survey.